


Homecoming King

by FireflyHannah



Series: The Shadow Side [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Kevin faces his past, Kevin-centric, Neil helps, Subtle songfic, mentions of violence and abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10141304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflyHannah/pseuds/FireflyHannah
Summary: Kevin's life was rocky to begin with. He escaped by chance, but the past haunts even the best of us. Kevin didn't realise he had a place, really. His place was by Riko's side. In Riko's shadow. But he's learning to be the most important piece on his board. He's no longer content with second place. He didn't choose this life. But perhaps he can choose his future.





	

When restricted to the rules of The Nest, one would often find that lies were easier to come by. For Kevin, growing up in the public eye on the field of a sport created in part by his mother after her tragic demise meant that he had to learn to lie. It was lie, or risk slipping up to the press, outing the Moriyama family, and meeting his mother again sooner than he desired. Kevin was not suicidal. He knew which outcome he preferred. He learnt which outcome he deserved the hard way, from beatings when he cut his lies too close to home, to realising just what perfection meant inside the walls of The Raven’s Nest. He discovered, that for a team so ingrained in perfection, a team held so high on a pedestal, the limits on their players were immense. Perfection, as Kevin would discover, was only encouraged if you would never surpass Riko. The first few times, it was considered luck, and Kevin escaped with a few bruises that wouldn’t do much but stunt his performance. It wasn’t until the first time an outsider noticed it, and told him just how much better than Riko he was that he truly understood why he was thrust into second place. His hand would likely never be the same. While there were clean breaks, it was few, far between. The bones had shattered, and due to the circumstances of his injury, Moriyama’s men were not quite that interested in setting the injury to the best of their ability, so Kevin had to learn the hard way.

 

Kevin left.

 

Statues. Crafted from the finest, sturdiest marble, handpicked by Riko himself. Four of them. Riko, Kevin, Nathaniel and Jean. The Perfect Court. They were expected to be stone. They were expected to wear stony masks of perfection that would never crack. And Riko was the king. If that was so, then Kevin was always destined to be the Queen, but he was regarded as little more than a consort with no real purpose except to please his Master, and the other members of the court were the Princes, only by name, for Riko didn’t care to share his court with mere pets. The media could regard them in any way, he didn’t care, but Riko refused to acknowledge that status anywhere else. The Perfect Court did not live up to its name. They were destined to rule the US Court of Exy with iron fists and masks of cold indifference. They were no more than statues to be revered. But Nathaniel never got to the Court, dragged off by his mother after they were forced into unimaginable horror. Jealousy reared its ugly head to Kevin for the first time. Not the last time. The statues crumbled slowly, even though Riko tried to replace his future number 3, he had a growing desire to find Nathaniel, and he’d take it out on Kevin. The statues began to crumble years after, and on the foundations of which The Perfect Court stood, Kevin’s hand was only the first thing to break away. Ruining his future was something he would not forgive.

 

Kevin left Riko.

 

He would not let Riko win.

 

He would never leave Exy.

 

Kevin found Neil Josten when he was assistant coach for Wymack. He didn’t know what to expect from the rookie, but he took a chance. Kevin saw potential. He did not know what he expected from Neil, though, but it definitely wasn’t what he received. The nobody from nowhere that tried so hard to blend in that he just made himself stick out more. No amount of running and hiding from the past would save the runaway from knocking the wind out of Kevin when Jean outed him at the banquet. He’d stared at Neil, trying to see past the lies, breaking more each time, because the boy who’d had the chance to get away was right back in the spotlight, stealing that spotlight from Riko bit-by-bit. And it was Kevin’s fault. They’d refused to take no for an answer, and now his team needed to save Neil Josten – Nathaniel Wesninski – from his own natural antagonism, his own smart mouth and the swagger in his step that proved he knew too much, and yet knew so little about the world around him, the world he’d grown up in. Neil Josten knew enough. He was a threat, a liability. But he was their liability now, The Foxes would not leave him. And yet, they also couldn’t save him. Kevin watched on in horror as Neil faced Riko with a cocky smirk and a gleam in his eyes that screamed _“fuck the homecoming king.”_ Neil Josten put himself in the firing line day after wretched day, antagonising Riko as if making up for lost time, as if he had a death wish. All Kevin could do was sit, and watch, as a piece of his past signed his death warrant. He could do nothing, and yet, he wanted to do everything.

 

The death warrant was one thing. No one else understood Riko like Kevin. He knew… He _knew_ that Riko Moriyama would stop at nothing to tear down the invisible man that had walked into their lives like he owned something they wanted. Riko would not stop at death. He would kill, maim, destroy everything Neil Josten had worked for. Before he killed him, Kevin would be forced to watch as the past reclaimed its throne in the forefront of his mind while Riko tore at every defence Neil Josten had, ripping at any frayed edge he could to reveal Nathaniel Wesninski, then digging further to find the truths about him, like how much he cared for The Foxes, and exploit every weakness he found. And Neil would fight him every step of the way. It would not be until this point that Kevin would truly understand what it meant to step into The Foxes’ Den. It would not be until this point that Kevin would learn that a slight against one Fox was a slight against them all. The Palmetto Foxes were a family, even if many of their own did not believe in family enough to consider them such. They would never let Neil Josten go. Even when faced with Nathaniel Wesninski, they were strong in the face of that adversity, and Andrew brought back _their_ Neil Josten. They did not care for Nathaniel Wesninski, did not care for the brutal past Neil had run from. He was their Fox, and they would never let the Neil that they built up from nothing run. They knew about _him_ and that meant more than his past to the small skulk of Foxes. And maybe Kevin was reluctant to admit it, but perhaps he could agree with them. After all, Neil was an unlikely friend from an even unlikelier place. The past.

 

They didn’t have to run anymore.

 

They could play.

 

They could be free.

 

Neil had taught Kevin the most important thing in their time together, something even Andrew couldn’t drive home to him. Don’t accept second place. Fight back. He had taught Kevin to fight back. He had encouraged Kevin to fight back. Not just against Riko, although, that had been the first lesson he’d taught him, but against a destiny that Kevin had always thought to be set in stone. Since the day his mother died, Kevin had lived Raven, breathed Raven, he had always been destined to _die_ Raven. But then this scrawny little boy from Millport came along, only to reveal himself as the son of one of the Moriyama’s most feared, and he’d shown Kevin that destiny was never set in stone. Neil was everything and anything that Nathan Wesninski was not. And yet, he was also lots of things that he was. Neil had a cool exterior that warmed to the foxes, and from there, the human side of a Wesninski was discovered. Neil Josten, who would smile at the Foxes’ antics in one moment, and then attack an opposing team member the next for a comment against one of his Foxes. No one would forget the first time that Neil crossed into Nathaniel, but no one would forget the second, or the third, either. Neil taught Kevin that fate was escapable. In return, Kevin taught Neil that it was okay to accept some of his natural instincts, because no matter how often Neil lost control, he would never be his father. That said, Andrew did a very good job of calming him down when he was getting that bad, and Neil very rarely lost control even without his boyfriend.

 

But the past was not always escapable.

 

“I never chose this,” Kevin had found himself replying to an unasked question as Neil sat by him one day, sitting in the tower alone after they’d faced off with the Ravens.

 

Red hair had reflected off the mirrors in the room, the faint light catching him only slightly enough to make the auburn looks look like flames. He’d laughed at Kevin. Cold, humourless, bitter. The laugh had rolled off his tongue in a burst of unapologetic and uninvited humour, and yet it held none of the warmth Neil usually carried with him. In that second, Kevin had seized up, blood running cold and turning to slush as he was transported back to a cold room, where he was huddled against number one, with the future number three standing just to the side, watching with a mask of indifference, but once Kevin reached for him, it had broken, and the three _children_ clutched at each other as they watched a murder, brutal, bloody, cold, and that laughter…

 

“You don’t get to choose your life, or your blood, Kevin Day,” he had finally responded, voice low, almost cruel, but with Neil’s warmth filtering back into the soft words. Blunt words, but Kevin expected no less, honestly. He cast a look around the tower, a frown tugging on his lips as he sighs softly, shaking his head. Apparently, Neil sensed his imminent interruption, as he laid a hand on his arm to silence him, and return his attention to him. “But you should, as should I, be glad. We got to choose this. We good to choose our future. Our friends. Our family. Our _home._ We cannot _escape_ our pasts, we can only work past them with time, and help. And we will, Kevin Day. One day, we’ll look back, and we will only see The Foxes. We will only see our skulk. We won’t see number two, or Nathaniel Wesninski. It will just be us. The Queen, and Neil Josten. Those are our escapes… And they have also become our liberation. We’re free, Kevin. Free to choose from this point onwards.”

 

Once it was over, he appreciated the interaction. Neil understood what he was talking about. Sure, Their Foxes had some bad stories. But Neil was the only person Kevin spoke to that truly understood the Moriyama family, that truly understood what they could, and would do. He couldn’t talk to Jean anymore. After everything, they could reconcile, and set aside their differences, but they would never be friends again. Neil, who had faced Riko of his own volition to try and protect his voices, and Jean, who had escaped after being beaten to near death, were the only people that would ever understand from what he escaped. But neither of them could quite understand the extent of Kevin’s past. Jean hadn’t joined them for a long time, but Riko and Kevin had depended on each other from childhood. They’d been the only constant in each other’s lives. They hadn’t really understood how toxic their relationship was, and Kevin doubted Riko ever did. Kevin was lost without Riko, lost to the second place and relegated to the side lines because he couldn’t play. And then he could, and he showed Riko what it meant to be the best. He stood up tall. He let Riko be King, but he would be Queen, strong, all encompassing, fierce. Kevin Day would be first. Except, he wouldn’t realise that until long after Riko’s death, when there was no possible chance of Kevin being drawn back to him. He’d fought for his place at Riko’s side, and with that gone, and no chance of returning, he wasn’t sure where his place was. Sometimes, he just needed the reminder, that no matter how far they moved from each other, and what paths they took, once a Palmetto Fox, you were _always_ a Palmetto Fox. Kevin Day was _their_ Fox, no matter what anyone else said. He did not belong to Riko. He was not Riko’s second. He was _their_ Fox. And they would always fight for what was theirs.

 

He thought about that a lot. At night, when Andrew and Neil would go out to the roof, (they thought they were being sneaky,) he would lay in bed and gaze up at a plain ceiling, wide awake with a contemplative look on his face. He would review everything he could remember in chronological order, sorting through memories with a frown, never lingering on them long enough to allow them to become anything more than a superficial speculation. Often, this would keep him awake, but if he was lucky, he might be able to drift into sleep with a hint of a smile of his lips, because he’d just reached the parts about The Foxes, and he’d made some of the best memories he had here with them. The thoughts were just more tolerable when they ran their course. It was easier to stomach if they ran their course. And each time he reviewed, he wanted to vomit at the bad memories just a tiny bit less.

 

Some nights, he’d fail to escape them, though. It was understandable, and he’d jump at any scratching sound, casting a look at the walls as though expecting something to break through. He’d be trapped in his own mind for a whole night, listening to taunting jeers and cruel laughter until he was jolted awake. The sudden intake of breath and quick movements would wake his roommates, and while Andrew would shoot him a cold glare before rolling over to return to his slumber, Neil would pull himself up. He would pad over to Kevin’s bed and sit, laying a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Again?” he would ask, a small frown tugging at his scars.

 

And all Kevin would do is nod, and follow Neil to the table as he bustled about in the kitchen. He’d remain silent and stare at the coffee cup Neil might place in front of him, encouraging him to talk to him. But Kevin wouldn’t speak, he wouldn’t respond. So, Neil would just sit to the side of him, or lean against the counter. He wouldn’t tell Kevin it would be okay, because he didn’t know if it would, he couldn’t guarantee that. He wouldn’t belittle him by telling him it wasn’t real, because Neil knew, as well as anyone, that whatever Kevin’s nightmares were, they were not just dreams. And just because those memories were not being made in the present, it did not make the past any less real. Those nightmares – those _memories_ – were not anything except real. Neil would not belittle Kevin by telling him they weren’t real. Instead, he would gaze at him, blue eyes speculative, and Kevin would look back, waiting for him to speak first. And Neil would break the silence, unable to hold Kevin’s haunted gaze for long.

 

“Remember, Kevin… You are the Queen of our court. So put those thoughts to one side… Corner them in and call checkmate. Win the battle, Kevin. Win the war.”

 

_Oh no, that’s not the life I chose._

But maybe now, without Riko over his shoulder every day, maybe this _could_ be the life he chose. It was time. He would make his own choices.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first All For The Game fic, I hope I did Kevin Justice. Hah. My flatmate encouraged me to read the series, and now I can't put it down. I barely left it alone long enough to write this. But there's more to come, hopefully. When I have time. I doubt I'll be able to forget about this lot... Haha.
> 
> If it interests you, I may post previews and shorter fics that I won't post to AO3 on my Tumblr blog fireflyhannah.tumblr.com 
> 
> In any case, thank you for reading. :) Hope you enjoyed it.


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